Sleep articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    Fluorescence-based polysomnography in zebrafish reveals two major sleep signatures that share features with those of amniotes, which suggests that common neural sleep signatures emerged in the vertebrate brain over 450 million years ago.

    • Louis C. Leung
    • , Gordon X. Wang
    •  & Philippe Mourrain

  • Article |

    Two mutations affecting the sleep–wakefulness balance in mice are detected, showing that the SIK3 protein kinase is essential for determining daily wake time, and the NALCN cation channel regulates the duration of rapid eye movement sleep.

    • Hiromasa Funato
    • , Chika Miyoshi
    •  & Masashi Yanagisawa

  • Outlook |

    One of sleep's most important functions is processing memory. Researchers are now starting to figure out how the brain helps us learn when we're asleep.

    • Kerri Smith

  • Outlook |

    Sleep disturbances may be an early sign of neurodegenerative diseases — but could sleep deficits cause these conditions in the first place?

    • Moheb Costandi

  • Outlook |

    Studies that restrict sleep show why a lack of shut-eye can lead to serious chronic disease.

    • Elie Dolgin

  • Outlook |

    The causal relationships between lack of sleep and mood disorders remain murky. But one thing is clear as day: better sleep can have psychological benefits.

    • Sarah DeWeerdt

  • Outlook |

    A growing body of evidence shows that getting a good night's sleep plays an important role in regulating the body's metabolism.

    • Brian Owens

  • Outlook |

    A combination of drugs and cognitive behavioural therapy may finally put an end to the misery of sleepless nights.

    • James Mitchell Crow

  • News |

    Brain scans during sleep can decode visual content of dreams.

    • Mo Costandi

  • News & Views |

    A study in rats suggests that individual neurons take a nap when the brain is forced to stay awake, and that the basic unit of sleep is the electrical activity of single cortical neurons. See Article p.443

    • Christopher S. Colwell

  • Letter |

    Place cells in the hippocampus track an animal's position as it travels through space. Previous work contends that sequential place cell maps are produced upon the initial navigation of a new area and subsequently consolidated at rest or during sleep. Here, place-cell firing patterns during rest or sleep are observed before a novel spatial experience, a phenomenon termed 'preplay'. These sequences were separate from the replay of pervious experience and suggest that internal dynamics during rest may organize cell assemblies to be ready for any novel encoding that may occur in the immediate future.

    • George Dragoi
    •  & Susumu Tonegawa

  • News Feature |

    Sleep researcher Sara Mednick has straddled the line between media darling and respected scientist. But why is there still a line at all?

    • Erik Vance

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